Dyslexia?

[Sinenox]

In the last year before I went on a gluten-free diet things got pretty bad. My head got so fuzzy that I couldn't concentrate, even if I wanted to and was trying. My cramping got worse. But stranger still, I began to get some kind of dyslexia. It wouldn't matter how many times a person confirmed with me that the room number I was looking for was 241, whether I'd seen the number, held it in my head and repeated it again and again for minutes. By the time I got to the floor I'd be looking for 421, or 124, or 120. So I was wondering, has anyone else experienced this? One of my relatives has diagnosed dyslexia but I'm not sure whether anyone has ever connected it to gluten, or if such a connection can be made. All I know is that I'd find myself having to look up phone numbers multiple times when I started to feel bad. Another part of my secret shame.

[luvkin]

I am dyslexic and I can tell you this is not dyslexia. You would not be forgetting numbers you would be getting them out of sequence. So if your room was 369, you may remember it as 396. Spelling would not be great. Dyslexics depend on memory.

Erin Brockovich has dyslexia she depended on her memory so she would not have to depend on writing about all those cases. She would have to write it down eventually but she would not have been able to write it down while she was speaking to the people.

Most dyslexics have better spatial orientation. If you look up info on dyslexia you might be surprised to find out the many famous scientist, actors, inventors, and politicians that were and are dyslexic. Dyslexia is not brain damage.

[luvkin]

Here are some quotes form famous dyslexics and dealing with thier dyslexia. I wonder where this world would be without them? (More quotes Open Original Shared Link

I was, on the whole, considerably discouraged by my school days. It was not pleasant to feel oneself so completely outclassed and left behind at the beginning of the race.

--Winston Churchill

He told me that his teachers reported that . . . he was mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in his foolish dreams.

--Hans Albert Einstein, on his father, Albert Einstein

I, myself, was always recognized . . . as the "slow one" in the family. It was quite true, and I knew it and accepted it. Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me. My letters were without originality. I was . . . an extraordinarily bad speller and have remained so until this day.

--Agatha Christie

My teachers say I'm addled . . . my father thought I was stupid, and I almost decided I must be a dunce.

--Thomas Edison

You should prefer a good scientist without literary abilities than a literate one without scientific skills.

--Leonardo da Vinci

I just barely got through school. The problem was a learning disability, at a time when there was nowhere to get help.

--Bruce Jenner, Olympic gold medalist

Young George . . . although he was bright and intelligent and bursting with energy, he was unable to read and write. Patton's wife corrected his spelling, his punctuation, and his grammar.

--Biographer Martin Blumenson on General George Patton

[Sinenox]

What you describe with the numbers is exactly what was happening to me. Occasionally a number would drop out but not usually. I only bring it up because I've asked a number of local Celiacs and some mentioned that they get the same problems occasionally. I'm certainly not maligning dyslexic people. As I mentioned a few of them are my relatives.

[Judyin Philly]

woops posted it twice..sorry

judy

[Judyin Philly]

hi

I'm dyslexic and my son as well. If you have relatives with the dx, it's a possibility as it is hereditary. Brain fog from Fibro & celiac is bad enough but then throw in dyslexia and we have a full plate for sure.

hang in there

Judy

[cybermommy]

One of my relatives has diagnosed dyslexia but I'm not sure whether anyone has ever connected it to gluten, or if such a connection can be made. All I know is that I'd find myself having to look up phone numbers multiple times when I started to feel bad. Another part of my secret shame.

Hmmm... I have never considered this possibility before. Gluten intolerance/allergy runs on my fathers side of the family, as does dyslexia. I have both celiac disease & a language processing disorder (dyslexia + the auditory equivalent). I have a genius IQ but have a low digit span (ability to remember numbers). I have increased this by useing my hands to hold some of the digits (I know sign language so can hold larger numbers on hands). I always sequence dominant hand first then non-dominant. This helps keep them in order. I have noticed I don't have nearly as much trouble since going gluten-free. In addition I have been able to come off all my seizure medicine, for idiopathic epilepsy, & have had no seizures. I had been diagnosed /w alzeimers because of my memory problems, but now w/o meds, my mental clarity/memory is pretty much back to normal.

Realize that many celiacs are deficient in B vitamins, which are necessary to brain function. You may wish to have some testing done to see what deficiencies you have or at least get a good gluten-free supplement. Don't give up, there is hope.

Wishing you the best,

Deb

[Mtndog]

It IS possible that you have dyslexia but I taught students with dyslexia for two years and one of the most common misconceptions is that it's all about reversing numbers and letters, but it's much more complex than that (well- it can be).

The same thing (with numbers) started happening to me and I'm pretty sure it's brain fog. But if it's bothering you, it's definitely worth being evaluated.

[missy'smom]

I have been able to come off all my seizure medicine, for idiopathic epilepsy, & have had no seizures.

How long did it take before you could do this?

[Cam's Mom]

Hi!

I posted a while back about a similar issue with my daughter. She is in first grade now and starting to learn to read. Last year before she got very sick with Celiac (prior to diagnosis) she was starting all the early reading at a relatively "normal" rate. She was a very early talker and has above average communication skills. She is pretty good with fine motor skills and is very good at drawing and art.

Well, all of a sudden, she got very ill with undiagnosed celiac disease and by the time we got her diagnosed and on the diet we started to notice that she could no longer do things that she was able to do 6 months earlier. She could no longer identify the front of a book vs. the back of a book. She could not tell the difference between on vs. no or was vs. saw in writing. She was also asking us questions like: "what's the difference between push and pull". All of this seemed so odd to us - we kind of figured that it had to do with the trauma she'd been through (also diagnosed with tyoe 1 diabetes). Then at her 7 month check we found that her tTg was stll VERY high - - and her ability to learn was still pretty no existent. Then suddenly last month the kid's brain just came back to life. She is do incredibly vibrant and is ingesting books, no longer writing everything upside down and backward and is understanding difficult spacial concepts like chess.

I know that this is gluten related and her teacher who was tremendously skeptical a few months ago when I said that is what I suspected even called last week to tell us that he is totally amazed and now agrees that gluten could very well have been the culprit.

So, I think from what you are describing and what I have seen in her that there is a very strong relation!

I hope it straightens out for you soon.

Barb

[Mtndog]

Hmmm... I have never considered this possibility before. Gluten intolerance/allergy runs on my fathers side of the family, as does dyslexia. I have both celiac disease & a language processing disorder (dyslexia + the auditory equivalent). I have a genius IQ but have a low digit span (ability to remember numbers). I have increased this by useing my hands to hold some of the digits (I know sign language so can hold larger numbers on hands). I always sequence dominant hand first then non-dominant. This helps keep them in order. I have noticed I don't have nearly as much trouble since going gluten-free. In addition I have been able to come off all my seizure medicine, for idiopathic epilepsy, & have had no seizures. I had been diagnosed /w alzeimers because of my memory problems, but now w/o meds, my mental clarity/memory is pretty much back to normal.

Realize that many celiacs are deficient in B vitamins, which are necessary to brain function. You may wish to have some testing done to see what deficiencies you have or at least get a good gluten-free supplement. Don't give up, there is hope.

Wishing you the best,

Deb

Wow Deb- that's AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think there is still so much that we and doctors don't know about the neuro effects of celiac.

Barb- that's so great about your daughter too! See- it really does make a difference!

[finally diagnosed]

Hi!

I posted a while back about a similar issue with my daughter. She is in first grade now and starting to learn to read. Last year before she got very sick with Celiac (prior to diagnosis) she was starting all the early reading at a relatively "normal" rate. She was a very early talker and has above average communication skills. She is pretty good with fine motor skills and is very good at drawing and art.

Well, all of a sudden, she got very ill with undiagnosed celiac disease and by the time we got her diagnosed and on the diet we started to notice that she could no longer do things that she was able to do 6 months earlier. She could no longer identify the front of a book vs. the back of a book. She could not tell the difference between on vs. no or was vs. saw in writing. She was also asking us questions like: "what's the difference between push and pull". All of this seemed so odd to us - we kind of figured that it had to do with the trauma she'd been through (also diagnosed with tyoe 1 diabetes). Then at her 7 month check we found that her tTg was stll VERY high - - and her ability to learn was still pretty no existent. Then suddenly last month the kid's brain just came back to life. She is do incredibly vibrant and is ingesting books, no longer writing everything upside down and backward and is understanding difficult spacial concepts like chess.

I know that this is gluten related and her teacher who was tremendously skeptical a few months ago when I said that is what I suspected even called last week to tell us that he is totally amazed and now agrees that gluten could very well have been the culprit.

So, I think from what you are describing and what I have seen in her that there is a very strong relation!

I hope it straightens out for you soon.

Barb

[finally diagnosed]

Hi!

I posted a while back about a similar issue with my daughter. She is in first grade now and starting to learn to read. Last year before she got very sick with Celiac (prior to diagnosis) she was starting all the early reading at a relatively "normal" rate. She was a very early talker and has above average communication skills. She is pretty good with fine motor skills and is very good at drawing and art.

Well, all of a sudden, she got very ill with undiagnosed celiac disease and by the time we got her diagnosed and on the diet we started to notice that she could no longer do things that she was able to do 6 months earlier. She could no longer identify the front of a book vs. the back of a book. She could not tell the difference between on vs. no or was vs. saw in writing. She was also asking us questions like: "what's the difference between push and pull". All of this seemed so odd to us - we kind of figured that it had to do with the trauma she'd been through (also diagnosed with tyoe 1 diabetes). Then at her 7 month check we found that her tTg was stll VERY high - - and her ability to learn was still pretty no existent. Then suddenly last month the kid's brain just came back to life. She is do incredibly vibrant and is ingesting books, no longer writing everything upside down and backward and is understanding difficult spacial concepts like chess.

I know that this is gluten related and her teacher who was tremendously skeptical a few months ago when I said that is what I suspected even called last week to tell us that he is totally amazed and now agrees that gluten could very well have been the culprit.

So, I think from what you are describing and what I have seen in her that there is a very strong relation!

I hope it straightens out for you soon.

Barb

Hi, still new to this board hope I post this right. I have been diagnosed since 1wk before xmas. My daughter is showing similar symptoms now of confusing her words, reading the word of as fo and was as saw. Things she new before are all a task to her at school, she is also in first grade. She has always had stomach problems and now that I have been confirmed with celiac my children are being tested. She is going tomorrow morning to have her blood panel drawn. My oldest is in college with all the stomach problems, he is in denial. He won't be tested until he comes homes from school. I do believe that celiac plays a part with your neuro psyche I was getting very confused for a while there and they blamed in on my hypoglycemia. Have been off gluten since last week in dec, no more allergy meds and can finally think straight and remember peoples names. I am hoping she doesn't have it. It is a very hard way of life to adjust, but if she does it is better to catch it now than to go through what we have been through. Thanks for listening. L

[Cam's Mom]

I know what you mean about hoping that your kids don't have it . . . but the good news is that little kids are so much more resiliant than we stubborn old people. My daughter is so amazing how she deals with things. She doesn't feel sorry for herself and readily eats all of my experimental baking and says it is delicious. Today she said "don't worry mommy these bagels taste fine to me, I don't even remember what a real one tastes like".

And, really we have been able to make all of her favorite foods gluten free so that she is not missing out on anything. She gets it that the going to parties and social stuff should be about the people and not the food - a concept I will never truly understand. She is going to be healthier and stronger for it. As my mother says, it's an unfortunate way to build really good character.

As for the brain fog, it is interesting that most adults (at least on this site) seem to note at least some brain fog as a symptom yet getting people (mostly at school) to accept that a child would have that same symptom is difficult. My daughter said she actually felt like she had gluten (or peanut butter) in her head - yuck!

I wish the best for you and your family.

[finally diagnosed]

I know what you mean about hoping that your kids don't have it . . . but the good news is that little kids are so much more resiliant than we stubborn old people. My daughter is so amazing how she deals with things. She doesn't feel sorry for herself and readily eats all of my experimental baking and says it is delicious. Today she said "don't worry mommy these bagels taste fine to me, I don't even remember what a real one tastes like".

And, really we have been able to make all of her favorite foods gluten free so that she is not missing out on anything. She gets it that the going to parties and social stuff should be about the people and not the food - a concept I will never truly understand. She is going to be healthier and stronger for it. As my mother says, it's an unfortunate way to build really good character.

As for the brain fog, it is interesting that most adults (at least on this site) seem to note at least some brain fog as a symptom yet getting people (mostly at school) to accept that a child would have that same symptom is difficult. My daughter said she actually felt like she had gluten (or peanut butter) in her head - yuck!

I wish the best for you and your family.

thank you, my daughter too is very happy eating my gluten free food and my baked goods. she loves the fact that i have to make everything now.

[Cam's Mom]

thank you, my daughter too is very happy eating my gluten free food and my baked goods. she loves the fact that i have to make everything now.

I just noticed that you are from MA - as are we. We are in the Amherst area and there are lots of very good resources here (mainly shopping and restaurants). Where are you?

[Blue-Skye]

Our son is 12.5 and is severely dyslexic and dysgraphic (profoundly gifted too - extremely high IQ) We ended up pulling him from school mid 3rd grade to homeschool.

Our son was fine until around age 5 then something completely changed him. He used to be a very calm child - for ex he cousl sit through a chruch service quietly looking at books before age 2 then around age 5 he began to crawl under pews and talk non-stop. He used to eat anything and then he got so picky he would only eat a few items fixed a specific way. Not that this is healthy but for example he would only eat a hamburger from Sonic - no where else.

We have been grain free / soy free / sugar free / since January 1, 2007 and we are seeing a few improvements - the one that sands out the most is his writing has improved a lot.

Blue-Skye

[jacqui]

Hi!

I posted a while back about a similar issue with my daughter. She is in first grade now and starting to learn to read. Last year before she got very sick with Celiac (prior to diagnosis) she was starting all the early reading at a relatively "normal" rate. She was a very early talker and has above average communication skills. She is pretty good with fine motor skills and is very good at drawing and art.

Well, all of a sudden, she got very ill with undiagnosed celiac disease and by the time we got her diagnosed and on the diet we started to notice that she could no longer do things that she was able to do 6 months earlier. She could no longer identify the front of a book vs. the back of a book. She could not tell the difference between on vs. no or was vs. saw in writing. She was also asking us questions like: "what's the difference between push and pull". All of this seemed so odd to us - we kind of figured that it had to do with the trauma she'd been through (also diagnosed with tyoe 1 diabetes). Then at her 7 month check we found that her tTg was stll VERY high - - and her ability to learn was still pretty no existent. Then suddenly last month the kid's brain just came back to life. She is do incredibly vibrant and is ingesting books, no longer writing everything upside down and backward and is understanding difficult spacial concepts like chess.

I know that this is gluten related and her teacher who was tremendously skeptical a few months ago when I said that is what I suspected even called last week to tell us that he is totally amazed and now agrees that gluten could very well have been the culprit.

So, I think from what you are describing and what I have seen in her that there is a very strong relation!

I hope it straightens out for you soon.

Barb

Hmm, my Hannah before Kindergarten was reading, high communication skills...now in 1st grade she is in the highest reading group level, she can read anything you put in front of her, but we just received her 2nd trimester progress report and she is having comprehension problems. At her school they have AR, which is they check a book out of the library, read it and then take a computer test on it when they are ready(Hannah did not know this. She thought she had to take the test the next week. We cleared that all up!). Hannah has been getting 70's and she needs 85! I was in shock b/c she has always done so well in school and loves it. So I started to blame celiac disease. She has taken to this dx with stride; she caught us buying the wrong food b/c she would read all the ingredients; she would go to a friends house and read the ingredients and tell the Mom if it was OK or not AND if she was not sure she would call us and ask us to please check for her. Then last month she was dx'd with Hashimoto's autoimmune thyroid disease and again, is taking it in stride; she has an alarm clock now and she sets it to 6am to take her levoxyl and goes back to sleep for an hour; she even informed her Dad and me that she only had 2 pills left before she runs out! So when I received this less than great progress report I just do not know what to do.

Could it be she is healing and going through something she cannot explain or maybe is afraid to tell us thinking she'll go to the doc and be dx'd with something else? (all her celiac disease labs were >100 and completely flattened villi. She had 2 ear infections under the age of 1 and then only saw the doc for physicals. Our only healthy child!)

Now my oldest, Madeine, 8 1/2y/o has DQ2 (me) and DQ8 (her Dada and he is Mexican)who I expected a progress report with several comments to improve on did great. She has mega colon, had SEVERE eczema up til 5y/o and now here and there, was told in Aug. she has osteopenia, is on the hyper side but pedi says not ADHD/ADD, also just got her 1st pair of glasses - BUT labs and biopsy are normal!! How can this be?????

Thanks for listening,

Jacqui

[jacqui]

In the last year before I went on a gluten-free diet things got pretty bad. My head got so fuzzy that I couldn't concentrate, even if I wanted to and was trying. My cramping got worse. But stranger still, I began to get some kind of dyslexia. It wouldn't matter how many times a person confirmed with me that the room number I was looking for was 241, whether I'd seen the number, held it in my head and repeated it again and again for minutes. By the time I got to the floor I'd be looking for 421, or 124, or 120. So I was wondering, has anyone else experienced this? One of my relatives has diagnosed dyslexia but I'm not sure whether anyone has ever connected it to gluten, or if such a connection can be made. All I know is that I'd find myself having to look up phone numbers multiple times when I started to feel bad. Another part of my secret shame.

I agree with a few other people - brain fog/cognitive impairment r/t celiac disease. I was just a great exzample I just went on and on about my daughter with celiac, whetras I meant to respond to the dyslexic ----I can't think of the word ----!@#$%^&*()I hate this thing!!!

My Celiac doc told me it can take 2 good years before you get your brain back. At least that has been the response by her patients. I am just shy of a year. 1 down and 1 to go...(hopefully less, but I also have neuro stuff too - neuro #4 here I come!!!!)

My daughter, Madeline with all the symptoms of celiac disease but negative by blood and biopsy is having a very difficult time with reading. We just had her eyes checked and she just needed a slight reading rx. I told the doc about having a hard time to get her to read and wonder if she is dyslexic, also she jsut wrote a shopping list for my husband and basic words were misspelled. She too was reading before Kindergarten and now for ~1yr. we have been having a very difficult time with school work - mostly reading.

Good Luck,

Jacqui

[jennysoul]

Hi, yep diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and after going on a gluten free diet alot of my problems have gone i can now sit and read alot. before it was too tireing, i still cant spell very well , and my numbers always got mixed up,

but i think what you could be suffering from is just strieght out brrain fog, which is really hard on the memory , i often lose words and cant remember things as a result of the damage gluten crap has done to me.

good luck jen

[Sinenox]

Yeah, the more I have the more it seems to be the brain fog. I was nearly diagnosed with dyslexia as a child, as I would see and transcribe letters very strangely, and as I mentioned my relatives have some dyslexia, but it seems to ebb and flow. The two year benchmark gives me something to hold on to, I guess. No one has ever given me anything like a timeline before. Thanks!

[little d]

I tend to write my number out of sequence like in 245 I will write the 4 first and 5 and then I will put down the 2 to complete the number. Never been diaganosed but I know that I have it.

donna

[Stargirl*]

Hi.

Gluten intolerance/allergy runs on my fathers side of the family, as does dyslexia. I have both celiac disease & a language processing disorder (dyslexia + the auditory equivalent). I have a genius IQ but have a low digit span (ability to remember numbers).

My daughter (11yo) is dyslexic, dysgraphic and possible Aspergers. She has a genius IQ too in spite of her zero digit span score and zero rote memory ability. She was diagnosed gluten intolerant six months ago and just last week was diagnosed dairy intolerant too. Since going gluten-free her learning has made a miraculous about-turn as has her behaviour. She still has foggy moments and her memory is not good, but overall her improvement is remarkable.

Before her gluten-free diet her learning had started to decline and her behaviour was a shocker!

Michele (new to posting on this board but a long time reader)

[BETTYBOO]

I have been gluten free for four years and I too sometimes have the problem with numbers. I think that there is so much more about Coeliac disease and doctors are just not that interested in it. In the past I have been called a freak at work for taking my own food and on a faddy diet. It saddens me the lack of compassion that some people exhibit. "There for the grace of God go I" would be my philosophy.

[buffettbride]

Last year for my DD was her toughest year as we really got into the heart of the Celiac symptoms. She too is absolutely brilliant and WAY beyond her peers socially and academically, but last year there were things that jumped out at me that it seemed like she should be able to do easily. I even considered ADD (not hyperactive) at one time because I just couldn't get that girl to focus.

She would read like the Dickens but sometimes didn't do well on comprehension tests although she could read aloud better than anyone else. She also struggled in math. It was a big year of times tables and division and fractions and she said it just looked like a jumbled mess.

She was dxd Celiac in May, just before school let out and there hasn't really been enough schoolwork to see how she is coping with it now, but I know there will be a change simply because she says her brain just feels better now that she is gluten-free. Speaking of Dickens, she read "Great Expecations" the first week of school and really seemed to "get it".